A cellular mobile communication system generally consists of a plurality of base stations (also commonly referred to as enhanced Node Bs (eNB), base terminal stations, communications controllers, and so forth) dispersed across a geographic service area to provide services to multiple users (also commonly referred to as user equipment UE), mobile stations, subscribers, and so on). To provide a high UL data rate, a power control technique may need to be used to control the UL interference level and as well as simultaneously maintain high UE specific SINR.
Traditional power control methods used in code division multiple access (CDMA)/wideband CDMA (WCDMA) communications systems, for example, is a form of fast power control designed to overcome fast-fading characteristics of a communications channel (or simply, channel). An important reason that the power control of CDMA was designed as a fast-power-control is that advanced techniques, such as adaptive modulation control and hybrid automatic repeat requested (HARQ), were not available at the time that CDMA communications systems were being developed.
In order to be effective, a power control technique has to maintain a robust UE specific channel in an interference environment generated by transmissions of UEs of neighboring eNBs as well as UEs of the same eNB. Techniques such as adaptive modulation control and HARQ are becoming a part of the newer wireless access technologies including WiMAX and the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), and are being used to maintain a reliable channel in conjunction with whatever power control techniques selected for use. However, power control is more than maintaining a reliable channel for individual UEs. Power control may be used to control interference level in the entire communications system and thus optimize the overall performance of the entire communications system.